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Sunday, November 23, 2014

It's around three weeks since I last updated the blog and so what has been happening during that time?Well the main event for me was the sudden appearance of a large migrant bug in my bathroom window. It's one that I have found once before, but that was out in the field and a few miles from home and so this was a bit of a surprise, They must be spreading faster and further than I'd appreciated...

A Western Conifer Seed Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis)

A Western Conifer Seed Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis)

This is a large squash bug that is similar to our own Dock Bug but more elongate in shape and around 20mm rather than the 15mm of Coreus marginatus. Here's a piece about the distribution of this interloper, with due credit to Britishbugs.org.uk/ :

Geographical DistributionLeptoglossus occidentalis was originally restricted to western parts of the UnitedStates, Canada and Mexico, but in recent decades it has spread eastward and cannow be found over almost the whole of North America. It was accidentallyintroduced into Europe in 1999, to northern Italy, and has since spread rapidly, beingrecorded from Switzerland in 2002, Spain and Slovenia in 2003, Croatia andHungary in 2004, Austria in 2005, Germany, France, Serbia and the Czech Republicin 2006, Belgium, Britain and Slovakia in 2007, and from Montenegro and Poland in2008. In the UK, the majority of records have been of adults observed at light trapsalong the south coast of England, clearly indicating a large migration across theEnglish Channel.

Here's a photo showing the very distinctive expansion of the hind tibiae...

I think this one must have been attracted to the light and then came in through an open window. They are known to enter buildings in search of a hibernation spot. Which brings me to this little video; it doesn't show any interesting behaviour, but it was taken after I released it into the garden. It was quite a windy day by the way...

Three days have elapsed since I placed the bug on this plant, I have kept an eagle eye on it each day and it is still in exactly the same spot; well, on the same plant anyhow. It has just concealed itself underneath one of the leaves and that has me wondering if the garden was the best choice to release it, when maybe I ought to have kept it inside somewhere for the winter?

I read recently of a couple of people who have kept these in a dry but cool place and that they can live on just water and reserves through the winter months- maybe I'll consider that, if it remains in place much longer?

A Canadian friend recently sent me a photograph of what she suspected was 'spider related' and asked if I could confirm. She lives in Burlington-Ontario Canada...

The Canadian mystery object

I was able to tell her that it does indeed look like a spider egg sac and possibly an Orb Weaver (maybe the Cross Orb Weaver-Aranueus diadematus.) Coincidentally, I found a very similar one a couple of days ago under a log...

Here's a little added information I cribbed from the internet, as I know Cathy will be looking forward to having up to 800 spiderlings come next spring...

Male spiders reach adulthood ahead of females and may pair up with immature females, waiting for them to become sexually mature. Females spin egg sacs in late summer or autumn that are about 20mm in diameter and comprised of golden silk. They are constructed (seemingly “plastered”) in a protected place somewhat away from the web, sometimes attached to the eaves of buildings or inside rolled-up leaves or other foliage. Female dies shortly after laying her eggs. Each egg sac can contain anywhere from 100 to 800 yellowish eggs. Typically, only one egg sac is made per female. Spiderlings emerge from the sac the following spring and remain clumped together for a day or two, after which they disperse.

One of my own reference photos of the 'cute' spiderlings

Whilst we are visiting the Northern Hemisphere, I don't think by the way there's any foundation to the story I read about Canada being a migratory country that 'we pick up and move to wherever the weather is nicest' but anyhow, I have a good friend who lives in California, who this year was lucky enough to be able to visit the monarch butterfly migration in Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz.They have very kindly given me permission to share a few photographs on my blog, for which I am very grateful...

Monarch butterflies return to the Californian coast in September/October each year in search of the milder temperatures. Most will have journeyed some 1,500 miles from places like Washington, Arizona and New Mexico and will remain through 'til March...

The monarch migration from their summer breeding ground takes four generations, meaning that the ones arriving this year are the great-great grandchildren of the ones from last year.

It has been known for this beautiful butterfly to turn up in the UK but with total sightings at less than 500 since the 1800s I won't be holding my breath to see one anytime soon; I just wish I'd been there myself to witness what must have been a spectacular event.Lastly I wanted to include a shot of the fantastic larvae, oh and thank 'TT' for allowing me to include these pictures...

Something that I came across completely by accident, when I was photographing other things, was this robin doing what I can only describe as grunting. It's only a very short clip and a bit shaky too...I will explain after you watch the video...

In all honesty, the reason this isn't great is that I have to admit, I was out with the macro rig when I saw this robin and so, keeping the macro and flash in one hand, I got the trusty point and shoot in the other, zoomed in and just shot what I thought was a photo, without checking the settings. It transpired that the camera was set on video mode...Ooops!I haven't seen a robin do this before but I suppose it must be territorial? Either that or it's got a cough...

The unseasonably mild weather has continued here in Kent and that has allowed the garden wildlife to remain active to a point. I spotted this damsel bug on the butterfly bush (Buddleia) when I was checking for aphids, of which there are huge numbers right now...

A phone grab of the aphids

On the same plant I also found this threesome...

2 x Moth larvae and a Green Tortoise Beetle

And under a fallen leaf I found this soldier beetle larva. The larva are soil dwelling and are predatory...

Cantharis larva

Cantharis larva

This last image will probably give you a better idea of the size of this larva...

And although I can't be certain exactly which species this is, the adult beetle will look something like this...

In my experience it won't be an adult long before it's doing this either!

That about wraps up yet another update, I'll leave you with this shot of the little lane I walk most days...

Sunday, November 02, 2014

It was November 25th of 2013 when I last visited Knole Park in Sevenoaks and so last week, I went again. This time I used the main entrance and so had to wait until 10.15am for the gates to open. There were plenty of deer around though, even close to the house itself...

I even found a big stag this time and was delighted to see it was a white one...

What an impressive beast this one is and I love the rufous colour of his antlers...

If you look closely, you can see that he's been fighting recently. Probably challenging another stag for domination of the harem...

I took an unhealthy amount of pictures of this big boy but, just couldn't stop myself-here's one of me stalking him...

Then I spotted a real cute youngster...

This is the kind of habitat that the deer are free to roam around in at Knole...

Didn't get time to look around the house but ventured into one of the courtyards, where I saw this large sculpture-I tried my best to preserve his modesty with a sunbeam, but didn't quite manage it...

There were lots of noisy jackdaws hanging around the grounds and so I thought I'd have a bash at photographing a couple of those as well...

That was my day at Knole with the deer, but now I have some news about the Death's Head Hawk-moths. I have to report that they have all passed away now but I did manage to keep them for around 6 weeks, I think it was. They are not long-lived moths and the longest I have read of anyone ever keeping them is 9 weeks, with most at less than a month. Anyhow, I decided one morning to clean out the flight cage they had been housed in and was shocked to find on closer inspection, they had left me a present of around 30 eggs!I had given up on the moths mating and had stopped inspecting for any signs of ova and so this was a treat to find....

I have removed them to a container and they are currently in the bottom of the airing cupboard for warmth. Having researched as much as I could,the advice seems to be that it is better to allow/encourage them to emerge and then grow them on as larvae until they pupate, and then overwinter as pupae. The food plant of privet is evergreen and so is still available for them.

I have no idea whether they will be viable and apparently the time as eggs is variable depending on temperature, but is always fairly short.

I read that the average is about 4 days but I seem to remember the first batch I had took seven.

I will let you know if I do get lucky and have more caterpillars-last time I only had 4 emerge from 15 ova but as I have about double that number this time, you never know.

I will leave you with this drawing as a way of explaining a comment on my last blog update; you may recall reading a very nice comment about my close-up shot of the moth 'claws'? Which said something like 'A stonking tarsi close-up'..I wondered if some folks may not be aux fait with the term 'tarsi' (tarsus) and so this should help..

AS for any American, or overseas readers in general...you might have to Google 'stonking'?

My Flickr photos...

About Me

I am an amateur photographer and nature writer, living in The Weald of Kent U.K. I have a long held interest in nature and love to photograph insects and bugs (invertebrates) in the surrounding countryside.